Hester sits in her parlor pretending to embroider while she thinks. She had expected Evangeline's daughter to be a co-conspirator or beautiful bait, but one look at Cordelia's frightened-rabbit eyes convinced her the girl is no schemer—rather, someone beaten down into permanent fearfulness. Still, Hester wonders whether Evangeline is clever enough to use a softhearted-looking girl as bait, given how skillfully she engineered her stay at Chatham House.

Cordelia knocks timidly and is invited in. Admitting she cannot embroider, she accepts Hester's offer to teach her. Hester notices Cordelia's turned cuffs hiding wear, and gently normalizes thrift, mentioning her old habit of breeding geese—birds reputed to drive away wicked magic—for income, privately considering taking it up again if Evangeline ensnares her brother. Cordelia flinches at the mention of geese.

When Cordelia pricks her finger and panics over a tiny bloodstain, Hester reassures her, teaching her to disguise mistakes with embellishment. They work for hours, and Hester observes Cordelia is determined, fragile, and very young. When asked her age, Cordelia begins to say "four" before correcting herself to "seventeen," glancing at the door. Hester smoothly covers for her, but notes the lie and wonders why Evangeline insists Cordelia claim seventeen.

At the dinner bell, Hester gifts another shawl and asks Cordelia to help her on the stairs—a small test confirming the girl is stronger than she looks. Alone in her room, Hester realizes her task has expanded: she must rescue not only her brother from Evangeline, but Evangeline's daughter as well, even though doing so could jeopardize everything.